Walking toys are well known and well established in the toy art. Such toys have been provided which are both two-legged and four-legged and which often utilize a power source such as a battery-powered motor to drive the legs through a motion profile. For years, practitioners in the art have struggled to provide more realistic leg movement in both two-legged and four-legged toys. All too often, the results have been a succession of leg actions which best be described as "stilted" and which lack any realistic imitation of animal or human leg movement.
While some success has been achieved in two-legged toys, realistic leg action in four-legged toys replicating animals such as horses or the like is yet to be provided. This is due in part to the complexity of motion which four-legged animals utilize when walking. The level of complexity of leg motion increases dramatically from a two-legged toy to a four-legged toy. In a continuing effort to meet this need, practitioners in the toy arts have provided a virtually endless variety of leg moving mechanisms which are directed toward walking toys having four legs. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 61,416 issued to Goodwin sets forth an AUTOMATIC TOY showing an early attempt to provide appropriate leg motion for a horse using a plurality of gear and linkage mechanisms supported within the horse body and legs.
U.S. Pat. No. 469,169 issued to Norton sets forth a FIGURE TOY configured to resemble a horse and having four movable multiply articulated legs. An internal mechanism comprising a plurality of gear drives and linkages operates the multiply jointed legs of the figure toy.
U.S. Pat. No. 637,508 issued to Grimoin-Sanson and Allard set forth a ROUNDABOUT having a four-legged animal resembling a horse supported upon multiply articulated legs which in turn are coupled to a linkage and crank mechanism for pivotally moving the figure's legs.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,422,436 issued to Gorgellino sets forth a MOTION DEVICE FOR AUTOMATONS having a body resembling a horse supported by four legs which are multiply articulated and which are coupled to a gear driven linkage drive mechanism pivotally supported within the horse body.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,514,350 issued to Sikora sets forth a MECHANICAL HORSE having a horse body and head supported by four multiply articulated legs. A series of gear drives are coupled from a common power shaft to each of the legs for motion thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,538,140 issued to Spelling sets forth a WALKING ANIMAL having a horse-like body supporting four independently movable legs. The legs are not articulated but are coupled instead through a pivotal attachment to a gear drive mechanism which synchronizes the front to back movement of the legs.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,807,391 issued to Danko, et al. sets forth a WALKING TOY ANIMAL having a body resembling a horse supported by four movable legs each coupled to crank mechanisms, the relative motions of the legs being determined by the gear drive mechanism.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,135,783 issued to Arnold sets forth a MECHANICAL TOY IMITATING A CALCULATING HORSE having a horse supporting a movable front leg which is coupled to an incrementing counter intended to perform the illusion of the horse counting.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,850,839 issued to Bogart sets forth a WALKING ANIMAL TOY having multiply jointed legs supporting a flexible cord maintained in tension between the animal's hoof and the drive mechanism for moving the legs.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,010,729 issued to Tomosy sets forth a TOY WALKING FOUR-LEGGED ANIMAL having a horse-like body supported by four pivotally actuated legs. The pivoting supports of the individual legs are coupled to cam followers which in turn are driven by a grooved cam rotated to move the legs in accordance with a predetermined profile.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,228,615 issued to Melotti sets forth a SMALL-SIZE TOY ANIMAL HAVING ARTICULATED LIMBS in which a pair of front limbs and a pair of hind limbs are secured in an articulated attachment to the trunk of the toy animal. In each limb pair, the limbs are joined to each other by a respective horizontal axis cylindrical stem.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,245,515 issued to Iwaya sets forth a DEVICE FOR SWITCHING POWER OF ACTIVE TOY having a pair of drive gears including engaging lugs formed on their opposite inner surfaces for mutual engagement and crank portions for actuating predetermined acting portions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,657,098 issued to Wilcox sets forth a HOBBY HORSE having an electrical power system supported therein which rotates a wheel coupled in an eccentric fashion to a pair of pivotal elements for each left and right leg pair of a four-legged animal.
British Patent 19505 and British Patent 370803 set forth early attempts to provide motion of four-legged animals such as a horse.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,177,602 issued to Choi sets forth an AUTOMATED MECHANISM FOR IMPARTING MOVEMENT TO LIMBS OF A MECHANICAL TOY having a two-legged and four-legged embodiment. In both embodiments, the legs are multiply articulated and include a push rod extending downwardly from an internal drive mechanism with an eccentric coupling to the push rod whereby the reciprocal motion of the push rod bends the hip and knee portions of the articulated legs to provide a realistic movement pattern.
While the foregoing described prior art devices have improved the art and in some instances enjoyed commercial success, there remains nonetheless a continuing need in the art for evermore improved, interesting and realistic leg moving apparatus for use in four-legged animals.